Central Academy High School, in Palatka, Florida, was Florida’s first accredited Black high school. The school was founded in 1882 and accredited in 1924. In 1969, the school was integrated and renamed. The district later closed the integrated school in 1977, and since then, the building has dilapidated significantly. For years now, students, teachers, and community members who remember the school fondly have organized to advocate the building’s restoration. As part of the Reanimating African American Oral Histories of the Gulf South project, a team from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program interviewed previous students from Central Academy High School.
